Rescuers Comb Wreckage in Spain After Second High-Speed Rail Disaster This Year

Rescue crews in central Spain kept searching the site of a deadly train collision on Thursday morning, a day after one train struck another from behind in Toledo province and killed 68 people. It is the country's second high-speed rail disaster this year.

Emergency workers and teams with sniffer dogs worked through the wreckage, with cranes brought in to help move the carriages. Police and soldiers assisted in picking through debris scattered down a gravel slope, where at least three carriages were derailed by the force of the impact.

Esther Padilla, a spokeswoman for the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha, told broadcaster TVE that teams were proceeding with great care. They were working "very carefully, because we still cannot say with certainty that there are no more victims trapped in the twisted wreckage," she said. A canine unit was sent in on Wednesday and would return to make sure nobody else remained, she added.

Padilla said 53 people were still in hospital, 15 of them in critical care. Authorities have declared three days of mourning for those killed.

The crash follows another fatal accident earlier this year involving the same rail companies on the same line. In January, 46 people died in southern Spain when a train left the track and slammed into the side of another travelling in the opposite direction.

Transport Minister Oscar Puente said the latest collision occurred after several trains stopped automatically because of a signal failure. A state-run Renfe train was then authorised to proceed at normal speed even though a stationary train operated by Iryo was ahead of it.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited the crash site on Wednesday and pledged an investigation into the collision, along with improvements to prevent a repeat. "It is clear that we need to reinforce the safety of our train service to rebuild the trust in our high-speed rail," he said. "It is not acceptable for a country like Spain to endure two high-speed train accidents in the same year."

The accidents have reopened a national debate over the safety of Spain's high-speed network, the largest in Europe and, until recently, a source of national pride. The rail system carried 45 million travellers last year, including millions of tourists.

The Spanish train drivers' union, SEMAF, said it did not want to speculate on the cause. "We wish to exercise caution until we have a detailed understanding of exactly what happened, so as not to engage in speculation," it said in a statement late on Wednesday. The union added that drivers have gone ahead with a previously planned strike aimed at pushing for greater railway safety and structural change.